Attackers exploited a vulnerability in the code of Ecovacs Deebot X2 smart vacuum cleaners and attacked many cities in different states of the USA. Minnesota attorney Daniel Swenson was one of the first to speak out about the problem.
He said that while he was watching TV at home in the evening, he suddenly noticed the strange “behavior” of the vacuum cleaners. Swenson stated that he heard what sounded like “an intermittent radio signal or something like that.” Snippets of conversation were also heard and the person was heard to be young.
When the user checked the operation of the vacuum cleaner via the mobile application, he saw that an unknown person had accessed the device. The hacker not only took control of the vacuum cleaner, but also gained full access to a live feed from the device’s camera and all remote control functions.
The vacuum cleaner acted randomly and did not respond to attempts by a legitimate user to turn it off. The robot was located near the bathroom, so the head of the family was afraid that hackers would try to film his undressed family taking a shower.
But this did not happen, the hackers aimed to “spoil”: the cybercriminal, controlling the vacuum cleaner, controlled the robot in a chaotic manner and then began to shout racist obscene insults, demonstrating his impunity in every possible way.
Security researcher Dennis Gies notified the developer of a serious vulnerability in the code of Ecovacs Deebot X2 vacuum cleaners a few days before the incident. The attacks were dispersed; took place simultaneously in different cities; This rules out exploitation of the vulnerability via Bluetooth.
Source: Ferra
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